EDIT: This may need some revision.
I wanted to make a blog, containing my method, for learning guitar. When it comes to learning instruments, I am not the most "committed" person. Hence, I decided to take to Heart this principle: "When the Path is Charming, commitment is Effortless and is Part of Your Nature."
I wanted to make a blog, containing my method, for learning guitar. When it comes to learning instruments, I am not the most "committed" person. Hence, I decided to take to Heart this principle: "When the Path is Charming, commitment is Effortless and is Part of Your Nature."
I had quite the idea (which isn't saying too much favorably about myself): Make a guitar method, for people who want (near-immediate) results, and practice which resembles playing around. Practicing guitar can feel like drudgery; it requires rote repetition, to train the muscle-memory, to refine and shorten changes between chords, and improve finger accuracy and independence (for both fretting the notes, and picking/strumming the strings). When I first heard Frederic Buchet (a GREAT guitar-player, singer, and person, who lives in Canada) play this:
**Insert Jaya Maa, and/or other songs from Arpan, or Fred's other music)
The first thing I thought was: THAT, is BEAUTIFUL!! (And the second was, I can do that :-). When I *actually* picked up, a guitar, though, it wasn't as simple as I thought.
Many of us in spiritual organizations LOVE to lead Kirtan, but I feel, it's important to be somewhat good, as a singer AND as an instrumentalist, before we do this.
The existing guitar books and methods, that I have looked at, tend towards dullness, expecting us to play small pieces of songs, which we don't like so much. Bhajans, however, can be Brilliant, for this, for a few reasons:
-They're repetitive, which allows for the aspiring guitarist, to practice the same changes, over and over again. This builds muscle memory, and gives an opportunity to bring lots of awareness to one small thing, again, over and over again.
-They're repetitive, which means we can sing, but allow most of our attention to be on the guitar. Additionally, it seems (intuitively) to me that these Sanskrit words enhance Awareness rather than distracting us like singing changing verses would.
-We get to sing praise of the Divine. Playing guitar, on its own, doesn't seem like enough, to me. But it is a WONDERFUL complement, to singing alone in one's room. And after some time of practicing, we can become good enough to lead a group, which is very satisfying. Anyone who has ever sung Kirtan knows the difference between a session with and without a lead by a good guitar player who sings.
What You'll need:
- A Guitar. I recommend ___
- A G7 capo. A must. Amazon sells them for like $30.
- About 10 or 15 picks. You'll probably lose some.
What I would recommend:
- DK's Complete Book of Guitar. Again, cheap, especially used, on Amazon. It has all the theory You'll ever need, and some great basics on subjects such as how to hold the guitar, play chords, and others.
